Somerset Wool Keeps Out Polar Ice

Wool is the best thing to keep your feet warm in freezing weather, according to Britain’s last Antarctic dogsled driver, John Killingbeck, and local wool company The Woolly Shepherd.

Killingbeck was delighted to discover that a West Country firm was making 100% wool felted boot liners exactly the same as those inside his polar snow boots from the 1950s. Woolly Shepherd partner, Nicky Saunter, was likewise excited to find someone who had used both woollen clothing and boot liners in such extreme conditions and – more recently during his trip back in the 1990s – was able to compare them favourably with modern replacement materials.

“The Woolly Shepherd team is of course mad about wool boot liners – they are warm, naturally wick away moisture, and retain their heat even if wet, unlike other materials. But to see John’s polar boots with linings just like ours from 50 years ago and to hear how they used wool in such extreme conditions was fascinating,” she explains.

“Wool served us all so well in the 1950s so it is good to see it coming back into fashion for adventurers and of the fashion industry,” said Killingbeck.

Killingbeck, who was stationed at the South Pole and is featured in a book about the last dogsled teams to work at the South Pole, still owns the full set of clothes he wore during his trips to the Antarctic in the 1950s/60s, when everything from the long johns to the socks were made of wool. Today’s teams in the Antarctic still use identical thick woollen shirts but the rest of their layers tend to be made of hi-tech manmade fibre. However, wool is making a comeback with niche outdoor companies following the New Zealand trend for very fine woollen thermal layers.

The Woolly Shepherd presented John Killingbeck with a pair of 2011 woolly boot liners, to remind him of past times and to keep his feet cosy in damp Devon!

100% wool boot liners made from felted west country fleeces can be bought online at www.woollyshepherd.co.uk, and at some local stores.